List of Great British Trees

The Great British Trees were 50 trees selected by The Tree Council in 2002 to spotlight trees in the United Kingdom in honour of the Queen's Golden Jubilee.^[1]

Ketts oak, Hethersett

England

 

Tolpuddle Martyrs Tree

Western England

• Tortworth Chestnut in Tortworth, Gloucestershire
• Westonbirt Lime Tree in Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire
• Sweet Chestnut in Croft Castle, Herefordshire
• Royal Oak in Boscobel, Shropshire
• The Bewdley Sweet Chestnut in Bewdley, Worcestershire

South West

• Domesday Oak in Ashton Court, Bristol
• Darley Oak, Upton Cross, Linkinhorne, Cornwall
• Bicton College Monkey Puzzle in Bicton Park, East Budleigh, Devon
• Heavitree Yew in Heavitree, near Exeter, Devon
• Ashbrittle Yew in Ashbrittle, Wellington, Somerset

Southern England

 

Wellingtonias were named in honour of the first Duke of Wellington, having been introduced to this country in 1853, a year after his death. The parent tree here was planted in 1857 by the second Duchess.

• Brighton Pavilion Elm in Brighton, East Sussex
• Queen Elizabeth Oak in Cowdray Park, Midhurst, West Sussex
• Selborne Yew in Selborne, Hampshire
• Wellington's Wellingtonia, a Giant Sequoia, in Stratfield Saye, Hampshire
• Tolpuddle Martyrs Tree in Dorset
• Big Belly Oak in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire

London and the Home Counties

 

Great Oak in Panshanger Park

• The Cage Pollard in Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire
• Ankerwycke Yew in Wraysbury, Berkshire
• The World's End Black Poplar in Roydon, Essex
• The Great Oak, Panshanger Park in Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire
• Sidney Oak in Penshurst Place, Kent
• Sweet chestnut 'The Seven Sisters Chestnut' in Viceroy's Wood, Penshurst, Kent^[2] NOTE this is not in the Tree Council’s original list.
• Charlton House Mulberry in Greenwich
• 'Old Lion' Ginkgo in Kew Gardens, Richmond, London
• Crowhurst Yew in Surrey

Eastern England

 

Newton's Apple Tree, Woolsthorpe Manor

• Metasequoia at Emmanuel College, Britain's first Dawn Redwood, in Cambridge University Botanic Garden
• Great London Plane of Ely, Britain's first London Plane in Ely, Cambridgeshire
• Newton's Apple Tree in Woolsthorpe Manor, Grantham, Lincolnshire
• Bowthorpe Oak in Bourne, Lincolnshire
• Kett's Oak in Hethersett, Norfolk
• Chedgrave Jubilee Oak in Norfolk

The Midlands

• Morton Horse Chestnut in Derbyshire
• Lebanon Cedar in Childrey, Oxfordshire
• Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire
• Original Bramley apple in Southwell, Nottinghamshire

Northern England

 

Holker Lime

• The Appleton Thorn Tree in Appleton Thorn, Cheshire
• Marton Oak in Marton, Cheshire
• Borrowdale Yew in Cumbria
• Levens Hall Yew in Levens Hall, Cumbria
• Holker Lime in Holker Hall, Cumbria
• Wild Cherry in Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, near Ripon, North Yorkshire

Northern Ireland

• Great Yew, a pair of yews now appearing to be a single tree, in Crom Castle, Fermanagh
• Old Homer, Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor

Scotland

 

Capon Tree plaque

• Granny Pine, a 300-year-old Scots Pine at Glen Affric, Highlands
• Fortingall Yew, a 2,000-3,000-year-old yew in Perth and Kinross
• Arbutus Tree, a tree likely grown from a seed collected in North America by surgeon-botanist Archibald Menzies in the late 1700s near Castle Menzies Gardens NOTE This is not in the Tree Council’s original list

 

Arbutus Tree

• Parent Larch, a European Larch in the grounds of a Hilton hotel built by the Duke of Atholl in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross
• A Douglas-fir, in the grounds of Scone Palace where David Douglas was born, in Perth and Kinross
• A silver fir, in Ardkinglas Woodland Garden, Argyll
• Capon Tree, an oak in what used to be the Jedforest, Jedburgh, Borders
• The Craigends Yew, a 600-year-old layering Taxus baccata in Houston, Renfrewshire NOTE This is not in the Tree Council’s original list.

Wales

• Ley's Whitebeam, one of only 16 Sorbus leyana (a type of whitebeam) growing wild anywhere, in Merthyr Tydfil
• Pontfadog Oak, with a girth of 12.9 metres (42 ft), the largest Sessile oak in Wales, in Pontfadog, Wrexham. The tree was blown over by the wind in 2013.
• Llangernyw Yew, the oldest tree in Europe (Between 4,000 and 5,000 years old),^[3] a yew in the churchyard of St Digain’s, Llangernyw, Conwy
• Defynnog Yew, Powys, Wales. A tree once estimated at 5,000 years old with evidence now suggesting a maximum of 2,500. NOTE it was not in the original list.

See also

• List of individual trees
• Great Trees of London
• Tree of the Year

References

1. . The Tree Council. Archived from the original on 6 January 2003. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
2. "Sweet chestnut 'The Seven Sisters Chestnut' in Viceroy's Wood in Penshurst". Retrieved 2 September 2020.
3. Bevan-Jones, Robert (2004). The ancient yew: a history of Taxus baccata. Bollington: Windgather Press. ISBN 0-9545575-3-0.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great British Trees.

• Great British Trees press release